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The parents of a Taylor Middle School student who was pulled off a school bus and searched after sharing orange Tic Tacs with his friends have filed a civil rights lawsuit claiming unreasonable search and seizure and excessive force.

Arlette and Dennis Mills, parents of 13-year-old Scott Mills, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque last month against the city, police officer Rudy Llamas, Durham D&M LLC bus company and a bus driver identified only as "Darlene Doe."

The lawsuit alleges unreasonable search and seizure, excessive force, negligent hiring and supervision, negligence and defamation. The Mills family has reached a settlement with the bus company, according to attorneys, and a hearing in the case against the other defendants is scheduled next week.

According to the lawsuit, Scott Mills, then a seventh-grader, was riding bus No. 225 on May 5 when he offered other bus riders some of his breath mints. When the bus arrived at the first stop, the driver ordered Scott's seatmate off the bus to be searched for drugs.

Scott was then ordered off the bus and was searched by a man the complaint says turned out to be Llamas, an off-duty police officer.The complaint said Llamas was not in uniform and had an unmarked car. It said he did not identify himself as a police officer or advise Scott of his rights. It was unclear how the police officer became involved, Mills' attorney Joan Waters said.

According to the complaint, the officer, after removing the candy from Scott's pocket, advised the bus driver that Scott was "clean," and the boy returned to the bus.

The Mills family later drove their son to and from school. They say that Scott was "frightened, humiliated and emotionally distressed" and that his reputation was damaged by the search and subsequent comments by the driver that "he has something to hide."

As a result of the incident, "the parents of at least two neighbor boys no longer allowed their sons to associate with Scott," the complaint said.

"The parents wanted me to emphasize they didn't file suit to get money," Waters said. "They were concerned that their child was embarrassed." And it was over a month, she said, before the family learned that the man who searched Scott was an off-duty police officer.

Waters described Scott Mills as "a very nice boy" with A and B grades and no disciplinary history at school, who runs track, skateboards and whose artwork graced the Taylor yearbook cover this year.

Jerry Walz, the bus company's attorney, said the bus company and driver settled rather than incur costly legal expenses. But Walz said he believes there was no liability.

"There's certainly no admission this individual (driver) did anything wrong whatsoever," Walz said. "The case was very defensible. ... It was a wise decision based on the economics involved."

He described the settlement as "not a very significant amount."Waters said that, under the settlement, Scott "will be able to ride the bus again and not have any anxiety in doing so."

Waters said the state Public Education Department requires the bus company and the school district to have a plan for bus drivers to follow in case they need police intervention. She said no such plan existed. APS spokesman Rigo Chavez said the district deleted its procedure in 1999 because it duplicated a state regulation.